David O'Leary blasted Robbie Keane for pushing over England skipper David Beckham during Leeds' draw with Manchester United and admitted his striker should have been sent off.

David O'Leary blasted Robbie Keane for pushing over England skipper David Beckham during Leeds' draw with Manchester United and admitted his striker should have been sent off.

O'Leary was as surprised as anyone inside Old Trafford when referee Dermot Gallagher let Keane off with just a booking for what was clearly a red-card offence.

The Leeds manager took Keane to task afterwards and he told him he should not have reacted to Beckham's challenge.

"I thought Keane was lucky to stay on the pitch personally," he said.

"I had a right go at him afterwards because I feel if you raise your hands you are leaving yourself open to the referee.

"If that had happened in Europe I think he would definitely have taken a walk.

"I was sitting there waiting for the ref to make the decision and I thought he would give him the red card.

"Let's talk about the actual game itself and it was a good match, a terrific match."

Not surprisingly, United manager Sir Alex Ferguson agreed with O'Leary and he could not understand how Keane had managed to stay on the pitch.

"The main talking point obviously is whether Robbie Keane should have been sent off," he said.

"For me it is not a debate, there is a new edict this year if you raise your hands you are off and the referee failed to do that.

"I don't think Robbie Keane is that type of player but he should have gone."

O'Leary and Ferguson, though,

were in disagreement over the result and the Leeds boss felt his league leaders deserved to win.

Leeds were on course for what would have been their first win at Old Trafford in 20 years after Mark Viduka had scored on 76 minutes.

But with just 100 seconds of normal time left, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer lived up to his super-sub tag once again by heading the champions level.

O'Leary said: "We definitely should have won the game.

"If I've got to be super critical of my players, they have got to learn because when we got the goal we sat back and invited trouble.

"This is what we have to learn. We scored at the right time and should have kept playing, but we kind of got deeper in the box and tried to hold on.

"I thought we were poor for the goal. We were so deep, the fellow

got a header in there and Solskjaer, how many times has he done that? What a diamond he is for this club.

"But it's not a bad thing to come away from Man United - and everyone knows what I think of this club - and be disappointed with a draw."

Ferguson saw the match differently and he thought Viduka's goal might even have been offside.

"The first half was a really good performance by us," he said.

"In the second half I thought Leeds countered very well, but the best moments in terms of football still came from us and I think it would have been a travesty had we lost that.

"In time honoured fashion we pulled it out of the fire again and for that we thank the man again.

"I think the asset Solskjaer has got is not only as a great finisher, but his ability to study the game before he comes on and look at it, know the state of play as he is going onto the field. That is his biggest asset.

"In the end we could have won it. The keeper was a bit lucky, it went between his legs and got a deflection but it was a great save, a fantastic save from Ruud Van Nistelrooy's header."

Ferguson has always regarded Leeds as serious title challengers and he said: "I think Leeds have a chance."